FERGUSON, Mo.—Racial tensions exploded in this St. Louis suburb in recent days over the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown, an unarmed African-American teenager shot by a Ferguson police officer, but the city of 21,000 residents has wrestled with the issue for decades.

The city's population has shifted from almost exclusively white to one that is predominately African-American, while the city leadership and police force has remained mostly white.

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